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“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Known as Mama Africa, Makeba also associated in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her rich life and legacy inspire Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the US after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, part provocation – with a fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina went to prison for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details the choreographer learned when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child Bongi died in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she could not attend her parent’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the production (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin pulls out threads of her life story like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas linked with the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on stage. Her choreography includes various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the singer. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. This is what I admire about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a manner that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October